Why AI isn’t booking your flights – yet

FOR an industry that prides itself on innovation, commercial aviation’s digital interfaces have changed remarkably little.

Whether you’re booking a S$15,000 first-class fare from Singapore to London or a S$70 low-cost hop to Bali, the process looks strikingly similar to what it did in 1998. The Internet Booking Engine remains frozen in time, merely refreshed by better visuals and faster search results. Step one: enter departure and arrival airports. Step two: pick your dates. Step 3: select passengers, then scroll through flight options, fares, ancillaries, passenger details, and finally payment.

Three decades on, we’ve seen stunning leaps in digital capability: self-driving taxis on public roads, artificial intelligence (AI) co-pilots in corporate offices, and personalised retail ecosystems that can anticipate your next purchase. Yet booking a flight remains a multi-step ritual that’s stubbornly procedural, transactional and unintelligent.